In Part 2 of his series on the Conrail New Jersey division railroad of Matt Snell and Debie Baker, Allen Keller’s cameras ride along as an inspection train winds its way from Allentown Station all the way to South Amboy. Along the way, the viewer sees the incredible amount of model railroad structures and scenery work the builders have constructed to capture the essence of the heavy industrial areas around northeastern New Jersey.

Office Car Special (OCS) #101 is an inspection train filled with officers and inspectors examining the line. The tour provides the opportunity to see the twin E8s pass mile after mile of chemical plants, distribution warehouses, scrap yards and propane dealerships which butt up closely to the mainline.

Passing over the Raritan River swing bridge – always a popular railfanning location, OCS #101 ends its journey at South Amboy, where the inspectors hop aboard a New Jersey Transit commuter train for the ride back to Raritan where the tour ends.

The cramped and crowded industrial areas and model railroad scenery designed built by Matt and Debie mimic the gritty views so familiar along the Northeastern rail corridor. It’s a great overview and behind the scenes tour of the Conrail New Jersey.

There are a number of ways to add realism to your model railroad layouts, and one of the easiest and most useful is to create lifelike model railroad backdrop scenery. With a well made backdrop, the elements of your layout appear to continue off into the horizon and convince the viewer that there’s more to

When it comes to painting clouds and other aspects of weather backdrops for your model railroad scenes, there are a few different ways to achieve the mood you want. Using just a couple basic colors and reusable cloud templates that are available at any craft store, you can add impressive depth to your backdrops and

For the next stop on our tour of the Colorado and Southern Railway, we explore the layout and scenery of Baldwin. Baldwin, which is located in Gunnison County, Colorado and serves as midpoint in the Ohio Creek Extension, was once an important hub for the C&S Railway. Toeing the narrow ledges of coal mines buried

Next in our journey along the C&S Railway, we leave the main line and follow a branch line through Ruby Junction. Ruby Junction joins together Kebler Pass and Irwin, which sit in the high mountains of Colorado. To make the town of Ruby come to life, expert modelers took advantage of a variety of techniques